Here, gone, back and a few thoughts about our changing life

[D2Reid]

I am in my 5th year of fulltiming in my Momentum and about my 6th year on this forum. For a time I was a prolific poster, but then life happened. Covid has certainly had an impact. We have never had it (that we know of). My mother passed away, not unexpectedly, but that still created a lot of travel for me. I got a bad case of planning fatigue. Fri/Sat reservations started me reconsidering our life style.

My wife and I also like to volunteer at state parks in the summer, stay at a ski resort in the winter. See the kids and grandkids in between. But even these things have not stayed the same. The Grands are getting bigger being very active in their young lives, less time for us. (It's ok, we know this is how it works). The RV park where we have wintered the last 5 years was recently bought by a corporation that runs RV resorts, we got a notice that the rent was going up 40%. And the state parks have started asking the volunteers to work 24+ hours per person in exchange for their RV site, when we first started is was 24 hours per site, or 12 hours per person per week. Mostly they just wanted someone in the campground willing to answer questions, sell firewood, and just be there to help fellow campers.

So we are adapting. Less "blogging" time for me. Fewer funny stories for ya'll. We are still very active, lots of toys to play with. We do a little more flying now than RV dragging. We are tending to spend 3-4 months in one location, previous years around the 60 day mark we just had to get moving. Mo is 5, so more RV repairs with no resources available, or at least hard to get. Fuel over $5 a gallon, talk of recession, talk of rising Covid and variants, war.

I know a few folks have followed my posts somewhat, and have wondered what happened to me. So this is to let you know all is fine. I have been a little overwhelmed with my changing world and couldn't really contribute in a positive manner, so I took a time out. Time out is over, I will better behaved in the near future, but not as active on the forum.

How big a change? We are talking about wintering in Florida...

Ok, not so bad, our son is getting married and the kids want us around to help...

Safe Travels!

[el Rojo]

Glad to hear from you Dallas.

[fmartinmn]

@D2Reid. .....wondered where you went. Thanks for posting your evolution as a full timer. My wife and I are planning on becoming "most timers" within the next 8-10 months. We hope to be tourist nomads 3-6 months at a time. We would like that lifestyle to last for 3-5 years, the Lord willing. What you have done (work camping while traveling) is what we would like to do. Thanks again for the insight. Frank.

[Second Chance]

Thanks for the post and the update, Dallas. You stated things very well. Reading your post I think the changes you have experienced are not all that uncommon. We have undergone/are undergoing similar changes ourselves: longer stays in one place (except for this hopefully-not-one-last hurrah of a spring trip we're coming to the end of this weekend), loss of our last living parents, a few health issues, the economy, etc. Now if we could just get our siblings to stop bugging us with questions about our exit plan...

I'm glad you're still with us and doing OK - and really appreciate the update.

Rob

[Redapple63]

I am in my 5th year of fulltiming in my Momentum and about my 6th year on this forum. For a time I was a prolific poster, but then life happened. Covid has certainly had an impact. We have never had it (that we know of). My mother passed away, not unexpectedly, but that still created a lot of travel for me. I got a bad case of planning fatigue. Fri/Sat reservations started me reconsidering our life style.

My wife and I also like to volunteer at state parks in the summer, stay at a ski resort in the winter. See the kids and grandkids in between. But even these things have not stayed the same. The Grands are getting bigger being very active in their young lives, less time for us. (It's ok, we know this is how it works). The RV park where we have wintered the last 5 years was recently bought by a corporation that runs RV resorts, we got a notice that the rent was going up 40%. And the state parks have started asking the volunteers to work 24+ hours per person in exchange for their RV site, when we first started is was 24 hours per site, or 12 hours per person per week. Mostly they just wanted someone in the campground willing to answer questions, sell firewood, and just be there to help fellow campers.

So we are adapting. Less "blogging" time for me. Fewer funny stories for ya'll. We are still very active, lots of toys to play with. We do a little more flying now than RV dragging. We are tending to spend 3-4 months in one location, previous years around the 60 day mark we just had to get moving. Mo is 5, so more RV repairs with no resources available, or at least hard to get. Fuel over $5 a gallon, talk of recession, talk of rising Covid and variants, war.

I know a few folks have followed my posts somewhat, and have wondered what happened to me. So this is to let you know all is fine. I have been a little overwhelmed with my changing world and couldn't really contribute in a positive manner, so I took a time out. Time out is over, I will better behaved in the near future, but not as active on the forum.

How big a change? We are talking about wintering in Florida...

Ok, not so bad, our son is getting married and the kids want us around to help...

Safe Travels!

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear all is ok and you are adjusting ok to changing life environs and conditions. Looking forward to your less frequent but well written nuggets.

Most of all glad all is ok.

Bill